School Days
by Feyren
Summary: A classic school day in the lives of our favorite RikkaiDai tennis players, and we get to stalk them.
1. AM Tennis Practice

I realized that I've never seen any of the RikkaiDai characters at school before. And I really want to. But since Konomi-san is not going to draw it, I'll write it. Just to satisfy my wild imagination. This is going to be another chapter story. It's the RikkaiDai students at school, starting six AM, when they get up for school to go to tennis practice. This chapter is about Yagyuu. The next chapter will be another character, still following the schedule.

**Disclaimer: **Why do people need disclaimers? Everyone knows that Prince of Tennis belongs to Takeshi Konomi. This is just a waste of time. I'm getting sick of writing disclaimers. I forget in almost every chapter of The RikkaiDai Sleepover.

Enjoy!

* * *

Yagyuu Hiroshi stretched, and glanced at his alarm clock. Five-fifteen AM. Perfect. He was going to be late by fifteen minutes. He was usually the first at the changing rooms – he hated having to change in front of his teammates. It was uncivilized. But he didn't really have a choice this time. His alarm must have been sleeping, too. He stood and put on his glasses.

Sometimes, he disliked waking up so early. After all, everyone likes a good sleep. Crawling out of bed at five AM could really be a pain. He'd walk to school, his legs feeling like jelly. He'd be half-asleep in math class, and by the time he finally wakes up, it's five in the afternoon. But waking up early did improve his stamina, though he had no idea how. Maybe he'd ask Yanagi-kun when he got a chance.

He walked into the restroom quietly, making sure he didn't wake up his family, who were all still asleep. Yagyuu combed back his violet hair, washed his face, and showered. The morning routines proved to be more time-consuming than walking to school. He put on his neatly folded school uniform, and put his tennis uniform into his book bag. Putting on the book bag, he walked downstairs and made some tea.

He checked the time. Five forty. Already? His mind was still half-asleep. He took a sip of tea. Nice and warm. He set the teacup down and drained the rest before placing it in the sink. He felt bad about leaving the dirty teacup for his mother to clean, but if he didn't hurry, he'd be late for class. He would make it up to her later, maybe with some flowers or a new tea set.

Yagyuu rushed out the door, holding his tennis bag in one hand and his book bag in another. It was still dark outside, despite the fact that the weather was growing warmer. His neighbors were asleep, but their pets were awake. He could hear the cats and dogs, meowing and barking like the world was out to get them. It was a wonder his neighbors could sleep with all this racket.

Soon, he was within hearing distance of the changing room. He could hear Akaya-kun and Jackal-kun, discussing Akaya's science test.

" . . . Biology sucks! Why should I give a damn about frog dissection?" Akaya was complaining.

"It will come in handy in high school," Jackal reminded him. "And biologists –"

"I'm not going to be a biologist! If you ask me, biology is for people who don't know how to play tennis," he interrupted haughtily.

Jackal sighed, exasperated. "Biology is a useful tool. Without biology, we never would have been able to –"

Yagyuu opened the door to the changing room and closed it quickly once he walked in. "Good morning," he said politely.

"Ah, Yagyuu!" Jackal greeted him. "You're late today."

"Yes, my alarm clock. I must have forgotten to set it last night."

Jackal murmured something sympathetically. "You think you can convince Akaya here that biology is something worth studying?" he asked suddenly.

"Probably not," Yagyuu replied with a hint of amusement in his voice. "But it's worth a shot." He started changing into his tennis uniform. "What is it about biology that you dislike, Akaya-kun?"

"All of it."

Yagyuu frowned. "Well, now. Biology includes the study of the human body. Did you know that?"

"No," he admitted.

"By studying the human body, we can figure out the best ways to model tennis equipment."

Akaya perked up. "Really?"

"Indeed. You see, our tennis rackets are formed a certain way as to benefit our grip. They must be built in a particular fashion so we can hold the racket easily. So technically, without biology, we would never be able to play tennis the way we do."

Akaya grinned. "I'm telling my biology teacher."

"That's good," he answered simply. He finished changing and gave Jackal a slight smile. "That turned out well."

"It did," Jackal agreed. "Thanks. Sometimes I can't anything through his head."

"Hey!" Akaya complained.

Yagyuu walked out of the changing room and onto the tennis courts. "Good morning," he greeted his captain, Yukimura Seiichi. Yukimura smiled at him and waved a little, and Sanada acknowledged his presence with a small nod of his head. Yanagi murmured a greeting.

He began to run his regularly assigned twenty laps. They passed time quickly, and by the time he had finished his eighteenth lap, Niou and Marui had arrived, already in their tennis uniforms. Niou grinned mischievously, and Yagyuu suspected he had yet another trick planned. His suspicions were confirmed at once when he saw Akaya running out of the changing room, his black hair enhanced with bright golden highlights.

"I'm blonde!" Akaya wailed pitifully, and Yagyuu resisted the urge to chuckle.

Sanada questioned Niou. Yagyuu shook his head. Would Sanada never learn? Niou would find some way to get away from punishment. You just couldn't win against him.

"I'm just helping Akaya display some team pride," Niou answered innocently. "The yellow matches his tennis uniform."

_That was true, _Yagyuu thought. Niou would make a fine lawyer.

He finished his laps and walked onto the last empty court. "Niou-kun," he called. "Want to play a match against Marui-kun and Jackal-kun?"

Niou walked over to him and drawled, "Sure, but they'll be the ones to lose."

"Let me hear that again, pizza-face," Marui dared.

Jackal frowned. "Let's not call each other names."

"Who'd you call a pizza-face, Little Miss Pinknette?"

"I'm a strawberry-blonde!" Marui defended.

"Get rid of the blonde. You're just a strawberry."

Yagyuu ignored them both and served the ball. It was probably the only way to shut them up. Jackal was the one who returned the serve. Niou raced up to the net and aimed the ball at Marui's head. It flew past Marui, just a few centimeters away from his face.

"What was that?"

"A return," Niou answered coolly. "Got a problem with it, LMP?"

"If I'm LMP, then you're PF."

"If I'm PF, then you're PMS!" Niou retorted, looking proud of his comeback.

Yagyuu mentally slapped himself on the forehead. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Liked it so far? In case you didn't get it, LMP stood for 'Little Miss Pinknette', and PF stood for pizza-face. I don't think I need to explain PMS. Heh. Next will be Marui, first period music class! Hope you enjoyed!


	2. Music Class

Marui's turn! I'm not sure what instrument he plays. I read somewhere that he was good with the arts, particularly visual arts and instrumentals. So I figured I'd do one with music, since I'm a better musician than artist. My pictures always come out a bit lopsided . . . So I hope I didn't make any mistakes here! Enjoy!

* * *

Marui yawned. He never did feel the need for music class. First period classes bored him anyway. Homeroom was hardly a pleasant experience. With a shudder, he recalled the fangirlism he had faced that morning. That had been enough to tire anyone.

"Marui-kun! I assume you have done your homework?"

"Sure have," was the tart response. He showed his teacher his music sheet and grinned triumphantly. For music class, he was to write a small musical composition, based on the music of Beethoven. Piece of cake.

Ah . . . cake . . . chocolate, strawberry, vanilla cake . . .

"The writing looks messy," his teacher noted. "How do I know you didn't just jumble up a handful of random notes on your way to class?"

"That's just my handwriting. Personally, I find it beautiful." He blew a bubble and spared his teacher a smug glance.

A fangirl squealed and fainted.

His teacher read the sheet of music. "It looks okay," she admitted. "Well, play it, then. In front of the class, so I can truly _understand your work of art." _She said this very sarcastically. Marui felt the urge to whip a tennis ball at her face, but refrained. There was an easier way to handle this.

"Sure," he replied dryly, and shot her a scowl when she wasn't looking. He made his way to the piano. "Enjoy." He placed his composition in front of him, and began to play. Its melodic tune filled the room. Even his teacher had to gape.

Marui stuck his tongue out at her, his wad of bubble gum resting on it. To any other being it would have been repugnant, but his fangirls swooned, like it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. One girl actually pulled out a camera and snapped a photo, probably to sell on EBay. He sighed inwardly.

His eyes were fixed on the piano keys, all eighty-eight of them. Black and white, white, white, black . . . His hands moved so quickly they were almost a blur, and he pressed down on the pedal occasionally for a nice echoing background.

The composition lasted less than a minute, but it was a beautiful sonata nonetheless. Actually, it was more like a prelude, with its tantalizing start. Its music made its listeners long for more. It was an introduction to something truly elegant. No doubt his teacher would force him to write more, and 'share it with the class again'.

Yes, Marui was proud.

"Ta-dah!" he sang, standing up and taking a quick bow. Ah, yes. Such a genius was he.

"Very nice, Marui," his teacher praised, clapping her hands. "You may take your seat."

He marched back to his seat. More like a strut, actually. Fangirls watched him and sighed dreamily, simultaneously.

"I hope you all wrote music as lovely as Marui's," the young woman continued.

The class groaned.

"Speaking of which, you will be required to extend your composition into a full sonata, minuet, waltz, or whatever you chose to write. The best composition will be submitted."

The students didn't seem to mind, as they knew Marui would be the one to win.

Marui, however, did mind. "It's always me! My music, every time! Why must you torture me so?" he wailed dramatically.

"Because you are the best, Marui," his teacher replied simply.

He smiled, and flipped his hair a little.

Oh, yes. That was worth it all.

* * *

This one was pretty short, if I do say so myself. But, oh well. I didn't really know what to write. I figured Marui was one of your typical hot-shots with sexy hair, awesome eyes, and an enormous quantity of fangirls. I do hope you liked it. Reviews are certainly welcome. I think Niou will be next. Niou in science, learning health education. Oh, the torture.


	3. Health Education

Sorry for the late update. I planned to update this every ten days, but I lost track of time, and it's already been twelve. Anyway, here's Niou in health education – otherwise known as the study of human anatomy. But this will mostly be about the study of a frog's anatomy, because Niou's class is going to be participating in a dissection – like me! There will be some mention of the reproductive system; my class learned that just last year. Next will be Jackal Kuwahara in Social Studies.

* * *

For once, Niou was paying attention in class.

What a shocker! Why?

Because this was second period health education, and Niou was an eager student who liked to learn.

Yeah, right.

"Who can name the organ just above the stomach?"

Yagyuu raised his hand. "The liver." Yagyuu's fangirls swooned.

"Correct! Name the organ used for female reproduction," the teacher said.

Niouraised his hand. Somehow, his fan girls found that absolutely charming, and squealed. "The ovaries," he declared smugly. Yagyuu sighed, exasperated.

"C-correct," the teacher stammered. "Yes, well, um, we're going to be dissecting a frog next week, so I want you all to study the human anatomy and the anatomy of a frog, understood?"

"Are we getting a male frog or a female frog?" Niou asked, a wicked smile on his face. Yagyuu threw him a warning glance.

"The frogs will be randomly distributed. So for now, we're going to review the body parts of your typical frog. Now, look at the frog diagram I gave to you at the beginning of class. Note that during the mating season, the male frog's pad enlarges. This is for groping, during the mating process."

Niou cracked up.

"When we cut open the frog, you'll see that there are certain organs that will clarify whether your frog is female or male. There are two diagrams in the back. The one with the ovaries is the female."

"No, duh," Niou said under his breath, chuckling again. "I learned that one when I was eight."

Yagyuu chose not to think about that comment.

"As you can see, both the frog and the human have a heart, a liver, lungs, reproductive organs, intestines, and what else?"

Niou raised his hand. "So how do you know which frog is the male, then? Where is its –"

Yagyuu clamped his hand over the boy's mouth. "Please continue, sensei."

"The male is the one with the –"

Niou looked carefully. "Whoa!" he cried, practically falling out of his seat. "It's _inside! It's a freaking tangle of weird looking tubes behind the liver! _Are you serious? How the hell is this excuse for a man – I mean frog – going to –" He began to laugh once more. Yagyuu groaned inwardly and quickly looked away.

"Niou," his teacher warned.

Sitting back up, he grumbled, "Won't let me have any fun." He smirked. "So, Yuri-sensei . . . how exactly do the frogs mate? Is it, in any way, similar to the way humans mate?" The wicked smile was back. "Because if so, I'd like to –"

"Niou-kun." Yagyuu glared at him through his spectacles.

Yuri-sensei smiled awkwardly. "That's something we'll save for another lesson. Possibly in detention. _Now, _Niou."

It was written all over Yagyuu's face. _I told you this would happen._

"Damn," Niou hissed, trudging off to the principal's office and tossing Yagyuu a wave before he left.

* * *

Yeah, there were a lot of interruptions. Niou in health education isn't really safe. And sorry I added Yagyuu in here. I just love Yagyuu and Niou. What was it that Niou wanted to do? I have no idea, but I have a feeling it wasn't something that could be listed under K+. All the things I said were true, though. About the frog, I mean. My class participated in a frog dissection in the summer, just before vacation started. It smelled horrible, and I think my group got a female frog. I'm not sure if it was male or female, actually . . . maybe it was both. That's a scary thought. Anyway, Jackal in Social Studies! Let's see how much he knows about American history, eh?


	4. American History

I don't like distractions either. I can really sympathize with poor little Jackal here . . . And yes, Jackal has fan girls! He deserves some love!

* * *

Jackal did not like distractions. He found them to be possibly the most annoying thing in Japan. Social Studies class that day was a perfect example.

"Jackal!" a fan girl whispered loudly. "I love you!"

A few giggles erupted from the class.

"Jackal!" the fangirl's evil twin added. "I love you more!" She handed him a razor. "Happy Monday!"

More laughter.

Jackal forced a smile and tried to direct his attention back to the rambling teacher. "George Washington was named the first president of the US as the citizens of the new country all viewed Washington as a hero . . ."

"Yo! Jackal!" a boy called. Jackal looked up. "Akaya texted me and told me to give this to you." The boy crept over to him and punched him. Hard.

Jackal did not utter a sound, but the throbbing pain in his arm was relentless. "What was that for?"

The boy shrugged. "He said it was something about you babysitting him and taking away his coloring book."

Jackal smacked his forehead.

"No talking during class!" the teacher snapped.

"Yes, ma'am!" the class chorused obediently.

The teacher turned back to the notes on the chalkboard.

A vibration in his polo pocket alerted him of a text message. He flipped open the cell phone and read the message.

**Niou: **yo- What's up? Did you get Akaya's 'message'? :-)

Groaning inwardly, Jackal responded.

**Jackal: **Yes, I did.

**Niou: **MUAHAHAHA YOU SUCK

Jackal stared at his phone, unblinking. Something told him he should feel insulted, but instead he felt annoyed.

"Jackal! Answer question number five!"

"Jackal-sama! Please accept my gift!"

His cell phone buzzed again. Repeatedly.

**Niou: **Jacky! You there?

**Jackal: **My name is not Jacky.

**Yagyuu: **Niou, stop annoying Jackal and pay some attention in class.

**Niou: **NEVER!

**Sanada: **200 laps after school! All of you!

Another buzz.

**Yukimura: **Oh, it's okay. 200 laps are too much. 199 will do.

Jackal's eye twitched. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Oh my God, this is the shortest chapter ever! Sorry . . . I hope you enjoyed, though.


	5. English Class

Sorry about the very late update. But here I am! By the way, anything in this story italicized is spoken in English, and is a part of Edgar Allen Poe's poem, 'The Raven'. It's a lovely poem; I had to study it for my creative writing class.

* * *

"'_Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary –'_"

"Takishi-sensei, what the hell are you saying?" Akaya inquired.

"We're studying poems; this is 'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe. A lovely poem, if I do say so myself. '_Over a many curious and quaint volume of forgotten lore –'_"

"But the poem is boring."

"You've never read it. '_While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly, there came a tapping –'"_

"But it's in English. How are we supposed to understand English? And this is –"

"This is English class."

"So?"

"Akaya, we have been studying Poe's poems since September."

". . . Screw you!"

"Excuse me?"

"You're excused," Akaya answered haughtily.

"The principal's office. Now. Go."

"But I don't want to! I want to read unreadable poems."

"You can't read 'unreadable' poems."

"Exactly."

"Akaya, this is a very good poem that has been studied for over a century. Moreover, this poem is a prominent part of this class's curriculum."

"Screw the curriculum."

"This poem displays an important face of life," the teacher argued.

"Screw faces and screw life!"

"Akaya!"

"Takishi-sensei!"

"I'm reading the rest of this poem, whether you like it or not." And so the teacher did. "Who can tell me what this poem was about?"

Akaya's hand shot up instantly. "It was about an 'emo' guy who had a pet raven that always said 'Screw nevermore.' And the bird wanted to eat him, but instead he invited him to dinner at McDonald's. And then they went shopping at a toy store and bought lots and lots of crayons."

The teacher slapped his forehead.


	6. Lunch Break

Just . . . kind of crazy.

* * *

"Luuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnch!" Marui cheered, gleefully shoving anyone who stood between him and the lunchroom aside. Without bothering to look for his teammates, he ran to the dessert aisle and began hording the sweets.

"Marui-senpai is round," Akaya suddenly stated, staring at the redhead from his lunch table.

"He's not round; he has high metabolism," Yukimura gently replied.

"Psh. He's going to get diabetes before he turns twenty," Niou snorted. "And then he's going to get a job as a prostitute. He looks like a girl, anyway. All he has to do is get a few water balloons, stick them under his shirt, and –"

"What's a prostitute?"

All eyes turned to Akaya.

"Nothing you need to know," Yagyuu quickly mended. "Right?" He gave his doubles partner a kick in the shin.

"_Ow. _Nothing you need to know," he repeated, grimacing.

Sanada and Yanagi joined them. "Is Marui raiding the buffet table again?" Sanada asked.

"There was a ninety-three percent chance you would ask that, and a twenty percent chance it's true."

"What's the other eighty percent?" Yagyuu

"That he's at the dessert aisle."

"Very good!" Yukimura exclaimed.

Marui grinned, his arms wrapped around a huge bag of gum and candy. "Talking about me, eh? What, are you guys saying I'm so handsome and –"

"_Ow!" _Niou glared at Jackal, who had apparently slammed his cell phone on Niou's head. "What was that for?"

"For all of the text messages," was the prompt response. "If I had hair, it'd be white by now."

"But white hair is cool," Niou insisted.

"Niou-senpai, you look like a granny," Akaya piped up.

"Shut up, brat."

Yanagi watched on with amusement. "Why granny and not a grandfather?"

"Because Niou-senpai has long hair."

"It's a rattail, brat!"

Akaya gaped at him. "NIOU-SENPAI IS A RAT!" he shrieked, jumping up from his seat and running to the nurse's office. "I NEED UNINFECTANT SPRAY!"

"Doesn't he mean disinfectant?" Sanada asked tiredly. "And what exactly could disinfectant do for him anyway? Niou doesn't have rabies."

"Actually, he might," Marui said. "Do you have rabies, Niou?"

Niou didn't bother to answer him.

". . . Oh my God. Niou's not answering." Marui was quiet for a few seconds, and then: "You really have rabies, don't you?"

"What? No!"

Marui jumped up. "EVERYONE! NIOU HAS RA–" Niou pounced on him.

"Why, why, why can't we eat lunch like normal human beings?" Sanada asked the ceiling. At this point, it was more of a rhetorical question.

"Hand over the cupcakes," Niou growled, "or I'll murder you."

"Then you'll go to prison," Marui crowed.

"I've been there before." He bared his teeth in a smile. "Nice people. This one guy got arrested for . . . oh, I can't remember. Oh, right! It was for killing a _candy whore!_"

Somewhere across the school, a green-eyed boy screamed, "_I don't want to get a rabies shot!_"


	7. Art Class

Um. Yeah.

Sorry for updating about a year later... and oh good _God, _it's almost been a year. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! And sorry Yagyuu's in here—I just love him, and I couldn't resist.

* * *

Yukimura smiled at his art teacher—a smile his fangirls found endearing, his teacher found frightening, and Yagyuu found slightly exasperating.

"So, you're saying we can draw _anything _we want? As long as it's creative?" the young captain pressed.

Mizumi-sensei nodded. "As long as it's creative."

He tilted his head to one side, narrowed his blue eyes warmly, and smiled even wider. "I see. Thank you very much, sensei." Yukimura immediately set to work on his painting, pushing past his peers to get to the watercolors and colored pencils, two tools he found looked very beautiful together.

With a set of fifty colored pencils, he constructed the picture's outline, and with the watercolors, he shaded the drawing. The shades were articulate and each miniscule detail was carefully planned—the painting popped out of the canvas and appeared larger than life. Some of it, anyway.

With great flourish, the blue haired teenager signed his name on the right hand corner of the painting, stood back, and smiled. "I like it," he declared softly, chuckling.

Yagyuu couldn't resist. He peered at the painting—and immediately recoiled in shock. "Ah, Yukimura? What _is _that?"

On the once innocent, naïve, untainted canvas lay a great mass of colors—more accurately, a portrayal of all the tennis members running laps around the globe, an enlarged version of the captain himself holding a great red pitchfork and watching over the athletes, and a wicked smile on his face.

Yukimura's face was drawn with intense detail, while the rest of the team members were splotches of color, only identified by the shade and general messy design of their hairstyles.

"Why, it's our tennis team," Yukimura replied, surprised. "Surely you knew that? It's so obvious. Just look at it!" He pointed to the painting happily. "Don't you love the colors?"

Yagyuu looked uncertainly at a purple blob. "Is that me?"

"Can't you tell?"

He cleared his throat and returned to his own painting. "Yes, yes I can. Blatantly obvious," he grumbled to himself, mildly offended.

Yukimura smiled at his teammate's reaction and continued to admire his art.


	8. Physics and Orchestra

I am depressed. All my stories are gone, because my computer broke down. Yes, this includes my novels, poems, homework, articles, and fanfiction. Everything! I am so annoyed right now. And I got barely any reviews for _The Gossip Game, _whereas I had ten for the first chapter. So I am not in a good mood. Check out my profile update if you feel like reading more.

So basically, I went on Google Images, and found this image of a bunch of characters playing instruments, and then I was like, "Oh my God, is that the bassoon?" because I'm learning it in my band class this year, and then I looked closer and realized it was Akaya, and I got all happy, because knowing that my absolute favorite character plays the same freak instrument I do makes the freak instrument seem a little less freaky.

* * *

"We're having our math class in the orchestra room today," the physics teacher announced to the class.

Most of the class started in surprise, but somehow, Yanagi had been expecting it. Many of the seniors liked doing so called "experiments" in the physics room, simply because the Bunsen burner (best in the school) had been hidden on the very top shelf, and it'd been a long standing tradition to try and find it.

Only one man had succeeded, and that had been Niou Masaharu.

Naturally, five minutes after he found it, the room had sort of, well, exploded.

So the physics class trudged to the orchestra room, where they found a group of second year students wielding strings and winds instruments, staring the physics class down. Finally, a student piped up, "Hi, Yanagi-senpai!"

"Kirihara?"

For there Akaya sat, eyes shining and proud, holding a gigantic instrument with a metal straw sticking out of it. Akaya's lips were cut and his cheeks were scratched, probably from the reed that was hanging off of the instrument. "I'm learning to play the bassoon!" he shouted, waving the enormous instrument in his senpai's face. Musicians in the second year's way quickly ducked to avoid getting smashed in the head.

"Do you know how to use that thing?" Yanagi asked warily.

"No," was the prompt response, "but I can get a sound out of it!" He blew into the mouthpiece, and an undignified squeak came out.

"Kirihara," the conductor huffed. "I told you not to start playing until I show you what notes to press! You'll end up breaking the bassoon if you keep doing that. And stop biting the reed! You must always eat before classes, because this instrument requires a great amount of strength, young man."

Yanagi decided not to inform the teacher of the fact that akaya had eaten roughly two day's worth of food in five minutes. He shook his head and began to follow his math class to the back of the room. "I'm afraid you'll have to deal with the band members' playing today," the math teacher said apologetically. "It probably won't sound too great, considering this is the beginner's band—"

As if on cue, all the band members suddenly began screeching away at their instruments, and Yanagi made a vague connection to the Monkey House at the local zoo.

"Look, senpai!" Akaya called out happily. "I played an F!"

"You're going to _get _an F if you don't stop talking this instant!" the conductor snapped, and Akaya fell into a sulky silence.

Yanagi frowned. This was going to be a long math class.


	9. Technology and Robotics

I can so imagine Sanada yelling at a computer. Seriously.

**There's a really important announcement on my profile. **It's under the updates section, but I'll summarize it here. This is going to be the last story I update, for a while, at least. I still intend to write for this website, but I'm on the verge of failing some of my classes, and I don't have time to write for this site as frequently as I used to. Therefore, no more weekly updates, for _Russian Roulette _or _The Gossip Game, _unless there's like, a huge amount of reviews or something. I don't have the time to update a story no one reads. Visit my profile for more information.

* * *

The teacher showed the class the finished result—a little toy car, which could move when given a specific command, could even turn and do a flip.

They had to make _that? _

Sanada frowned disapprovingly at the box of strange metal contraptions placed before him. The teacher handed him a computer. "Here, Sanada-kun. Your assignment has been placed on the Microsoft Word file, in the assignments folder."

Instead of responding, however, Sanada merely stared. "Pardon, sensei, but what am I to do with . . . this?" He gestured to the box of metal parts condescendingly.

"This is a robotics class," his teacher replied. "Those are the parts you'll need to make your robot."

A robot?

Robots were . . .

"Robots can't play tennis," Sanada said flatly.

The teacher laughed. "Your robot doesn't have to know how to play tennis. All you have to do is learn to program it to walk straight, and turn ninety degrees in accordance to your remote control's commands."

Sanada stared blankly. He'd grown up in a fairly traditional home, practiced fairly traditional things, and played fairly tradition sports and games. The only time he ever held a computer was when he helped Yukimura confiscate Akaya's (unfortunately, he'd learned to use Photoshop), and even then, he hadn't used it.

And here he was, being asked to build a robot from a handful of plastic and metal pieces. Red, yellow, and blue plastic dotted his vision; just staring at the parts was giving him a migraine.

There was no instruction manual, so Sanada simply took a handful of parts and began attaching them in random spots, hoping they'd fit together—because while he was fairly intuitive when it came to tennis, technology was a whole other matter.

It came out looking a bit like a spider. He was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to look like that. More frustrated than disappointed, he went back to the bin of plastic and metal parts.

Oh. There was a base for the car in there. He probably should have used that.

He took out the little yellow base and turned it around a few times. One side had a button, while the other side didn't. There were at least twenty bumps on it, as well as a bunch of crevices. Which side was supposed to be the top? Where were the wheels supposed to go? And wasn't there supposed to be a wire?

This wasn't turning out very well. Perhaps he ought to check the assignment.

With a huff, he turned to the computer. The screen was blank. How did people turn these things on, again?

He tried to recall what Yukimura had done. There was supposed to be a circular button toward the bottom right hand corner of the screen, wasn't there?

No, this couldn't be right. The button was an oval, not a circle. But there weren't any circular buttons anywhere else by the screen . . .

Maybe the button was somewhere else on the computer?

He flipped it over. Ah, yes. There were several round buttons on the other side, as well as along the rims and edges of the computer. It must have been one of those, then.

But which one?

Technology did always give him a headache.

. . . Though not as much of a headache as the one Akaya gave him.

In a stroke of genius, he decided he'd just press all the buttons at once. In the end, one of them had to be the 'on' button, after all.

So Sanada pressed them all at once.

And was slightly confused when the computer spontaneously combusted.

The class turned to him, but he didn't notice their stares.

". . ."

". . ."

"_Tarundoru!_" Sanada roared, and promptly backhanded the computer across its shattered screen.

A beautiful way to end the school day, indeed.


End file.
